Fed Square: Digital Canvas

Our new digital canvas offers an ambient visual system that supports rest, restoration and self-expression. The canvas is an evolving platform for the community to articulate and express their own civic voice.

Our five-storey canvas is integrated into the architectural facade of Federation Square’s Transport building. Made of 850 LED panels and four million pixels at 6mm pitch, the canvas is integrated into the architectural facade with a 5K resolution public viewing screen at the centre.

We set the content foundation with a series called Textures of Melbourne, which evokes a perspective of Melbourne that is recognisable, yet rarely seen. We curated the cultural and communal content programme to convey simple, rich moments that form our shared experience of Victoria.

An adaptive luminous skin, the canvas can become responsive, interactive or ambient to complement the rhythm and flow of the space. Content is programmed according to the natural changing rhythms of the city, time of day and special events, whereby compelling digital artworks can be showcased. Our CORE control system handles the mapping of a complex web of inputs and outputs, organising user-generated content and automating on, off, ambient and interactive states.

This artwork heralds a new way to think of how we design cities, towards a gentler more humane rhythm, towards an approach to light that is integrated into architecture, that creates a sense of place and potential for co-creation. – Bruce Ramus